Perlego founder admits his biggest mistake with remote work transition

So just stick true to yourself and be true to your values as a founder and don't try and please everyone.

27:58 / 28:38

and just trying everything and we're sitting together. But if you're gonna build a company remotely, I just don't think you can build that startup culture that you need. So again, next one. Today, we have a bit of flexibility and people come in three days a week. But I truly believe culture is set by sitting next to your colleagues. And so one of my mistakes is when we with COVID, we became a 100% remote, then we saw the culture kind of go down a bit, then we came brought people back in. So just stick true to yourself and be true to your values as a founder and don't try and please everyone. And I think I've tried to you know, sometimes you wanna make sure everyone's happy. And I think culture is also about saying what you're not than what you are. You know? Yeah. So

do you think it's hard once once you've gone to, like,

even partially remote to go back to fully in the office? Is that just how And people need flexibility. Right? So I'm totally for flexibility, but I think I meet these early stage founders. And I'm furthered in my journey. Right? We're a big company now, and and, like, it's about scaling and optimizing.

About this clip

Gauthier Van Malderen shares his experience with transitioning to 100% remote work during COVID, watching company culture decline, and the difficult decision to bring employees back to the office. He reflects on the importance of staying true to your values as a founder rather than trying to please everyone, and discusses the ongoing tension between flexibility and in-person culture for early-stage companies.

Why this clip

This clip captures a candid founder admission about a major operational mistake and the cultural consequences of remote work decisions that many founders can relate to.

27:58 - 28:3840spersonal lesson

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